Candy Hearts
by Lady Emily
Summary: In the aftermath of Party On, Bailey finally composes her message for Cody.


Disclaimer: I do not own and am not making any profit from the use of these characters.

A/N 2: I know, I know, "Party On" isn't even officially out yet and everybody and their mother has written their take on it. Add me to the list. (But really, this one's not for you. It's therapeutic. For me lol.)

A/N: Okay, after "Party On," I'm pretty sure there's no neat way of getting Cody and Bailey back together. I am completely sick of the both of them- it doesn't even feel like they like each other at all anymore! The way Cody actually confessed his love and Bailey just blew him off? At this point, there is no hope of a satisfying resolution unless... maybe Bailey hooks up with Woody? (I heart Woody!) Way to go, Suite Life writers: I'm officially jumping ship.

...Oh, who am I kidding?

* * *

Cody Martin sat in the corner of the upper deck, letting his legs dangle through the bars as he watched the ongoing party on the Sky Deck below. A lot of things could be said about the passengers and crew of the S.S. Tipton- they were strange, crazy, sometimes dangerous... but they definitely knew how to party. It was fast approaching one am and the bash Zack had planned for Maya (and London, and Moseby) was still in full swing, albeit a slightly more mellow swing.

Looking around, Cody spotted the unlikely couple of London and Sean Kingston sharing a milkshake at the smoothie bar. Woody and Addison were laughing and joking as they shot baskets together. In the middle of the deck, Zack and Maya were slow-dancing. He could clearly see the excitement and affection shining in Maya's eyes as his brother cupped the back of her neck and kissed her sweetly, slowly. Cody tore his eyes away. He should have given Zack and Maya the chocolate factory tickets.

Maybe then he wouldn't be feeling so awful right now.

The whole day had been one stupid idea after another. Believing he could handle taking a "sweethearts tour" of the factory with Bailey as platonic friends? Mistake. Letting Woody convince him that Bailey's chocolate message to him had meant she wanted him back? Mistake. Confessing that he still loved her, only to have her shoot him down in front of everyone? Big mistake.

He didn't know how long he sat, just staring out at the ocean. Too mentally and emotionally exhausted to party, too lonely to go back to an empty cabin, he sat on the outskirts of the activities, resting his head against the cool bars of the railing and letting the ocean breeze blow away the embarrassing memories of the day. Hearing footsteps behind him, he closed his eyes. "I told you, Zack, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Go back to Maya." He appreciated his brother taking time away from his new girlfriend to check up on him, he did, but on some level, he just wanted to be alone.

"It's not Zack."

The three little words had Cody gritting his teeth together... it wasn't what had been said, it was who had said it. A soft voice. An angelic voice.

"Oh, it's you." he said flatly.

Bailey took a few steps closer, coming up beside him. "Mind if I sit down?"

"Well, I'm not crazy about it, but... we're in Belgium, I guess it's pretty much a free country." Cody answered, not looking at her.

Bailey sat down, likewise hanging her feet over the ledge. "So you're mad at me." she said quietly.

Cody snorted. "Of course I'm mad at you! You broke my heart, and you humiliated me in front of everyone on the tour! And then you broke my _heart_."

"I didn't humiliate you, you humiliated yourself." Bailey said defensively. "It's not my fault you misinterpreted the situation. You shouldn't have been using Woody to spy on what I was writing!"

"I didn't send him to spy, he volunteered the information!" Cody retorted angrily. "And I changed my message because I didn't want _you_ to be embarrassed when you gave me a heart that said you loved me and I gave you one that said we were just friends! I guess _I'm_ the idiot for not figuring out that you were planning to, what, I don't know, _priority-mail _that stupid piece of chocolate to your father in Kansas!"

"Cody, I'm sorry!" Bailey burst out, causing him to look at her for the first time. "I didn't mean to embarrass you, I didn't think you were telling the truth, you know, when you said that... you never stopped lo-"

"I don't want to hear about what I said." Cody said harshly, cutting her off. "Just forget it."

"I thought we were just friends, Cody... I didn't think you'd-"

"Didn't think I'd make a fool out of myself? It's like you don't know me at all." Cody spat ruefully.

Bailey shook her head in frustration, tears shining in her eyes. "You know what, Cody? Clearly we're no good at being friends at all."

Stunned by her words, Cody calmed down, a wounded look on his face. "You... you don't even want to be friends anymore?"

"I didn't say that." Bailey gripped the rail in front of her tightly. "You're scaring me, Cody. You're so hostile and angry all the time. This isn't _you_." She watched as his eyes slipped closed and a defeated look passed over his face.

"It's me, Bails." he said quietly. He wasn't proud of the way he'd been acting since the breakup, but what was he supposed to do? He'd never had his heart broken before. How could he pretend like everything was fine? "I don't know who you want me to be."

"How about the Cody I fell in love with a year ago?" Bailey whispered, almost inaudibly.

Anger welled up in him again. "It's _me_, Bailey. I'm still the same person! But I'm human, just like everybody else, and I screw up everything, and if you can't even be my friend-"

"Cody, you don't screw up _everything._" Bailey said gently. "And I _can't_ be your friend."

So that was it then. Now it was _really _over.

"So... you came to kick me while I'm down. Mission accomplished." he said softly, coldly. Trying to mask the fact that, despite not even thinking it possible, his heart was breaking _again_. "Was there anything else?"

"As a matter of fact, there was something else." Reaching into her pocket, she withdrew something small, slipping it into his hand.

Opening his fingers, he stared at the object in the palm of his hand. It was a yellow candy heart bearing the words _Kiss me._ Angrily, he shut his fist around it. "Yeah, that's real hilarious. I'll have a great laugh about this once my wounded pride finally kicks the bucket for good." Resisting the urge to throw it as far as he could, he instead popped the heart in his mouth, crunching down on it with his molars and wincing at the amount of force it took just to break the thing in half. "Ah-ow!" He spit the two halves of the heart into his hand. "What, breaking my heart wasn't enough, you wanted to break my teeth too?" He tossed the candy through the bars of the railing, watching the pieces fly into the ocean.

"I'm sorry..." Bailey stifled a smile with her hand. "I don't like candy hearts. Those have been sitting in my cabin since last Valentine's Day."

"Gee thanks." Cody said sourly. "What else do you have for me? A _Three Musketeers_ bar from last Halloween with a razor blade in it?"

"Cody!" Bailey sighed. "I'm not making fun of you, and I'm not trying to wreck your teeth. You weren't supposed to eat it. You were supposed to read it." With one hand, she reached over and placed her fingers under his jaw, turning his head towards her. "I couldn't fit _I never stopped loving you, either_ on it. But..." She passed him another heart, a pink one.

"Bails?" Cody's eyes were wide as they looked into hers. Prompted by her gentle, urging smile, he looked at the heart in his hand. "_Be mine._" He looked back at her and found not a trace of malice, teasing, or dishonesty in her face, just hope... and something else.

"_You're the one for me._" Bailey finished in a whisper, quoting the message he had written her earlier.

He could only stare at her now, awestruck.

"Cody, those things you said to me, on that heart... You can't imagine how they made me feel. If you hadn't said them... I never would have found the courage to tell you that... my feelings for you never stopped either." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "I'm not good with words like you are, but... I love you, Cody. And I want you back... if you still want me."

Cody couldn't believe his ears. For the second time today, his heart swelled with the news that she still loved him, the way he loved her. But this time, it was coming straight from her. He gazed at her, almost afraid that if he blinked he would find that he'd imagined the whole thing.

"Cody... This time, I'm talking to _you_." Bailey joked weakly. When he stayed silent, she bit her lip nervously. "Cody... please say something..." she whispered, tears beginning to prick her eyes.

"I... I don't know what to say." he confessed, his voice breaking. "I mean, my feelings for you are... but our relationship is... we've been so awful to each other, Bails."

"I know." Bailey murmured. One corner of her mouth quirked up in a smile. "We should stop that."

"We should stop that." Cody repeated, a faint smile coming to his face as well. He had no idea what he was doing, where this conversation was going. Earlier, he had told her how he felt about her, no hesitation, no reservations, no strings attached, and he'd had to stand there and see the pity in her eyes as she told him she didn't feel the same way. Now he couldn't give her the commitment she was looking for. He couldn't put himself back in her hands. He couldn't take another rejection. "Bailey..." he shook his head.

She took a quick, tiny intake of breath that sounded suspiciously like a lone sob. "Didn't you mean the things you wrote in the factory?"

She sounded... heartbroken, and somehow her pain was unbearable. The anger, the hurt, the distrust... it all faded away, replaced by the urge to pull her into his arms and hold her, protect her. In that moment he realized that his confession in the factory was completely true. The realization burned through him like a forest fire: he was wholly, utterly in love with her. "Every word."

She looked up at him, wet eyelashes sticking together in spikes. "So you do love me?"

The question seemed too small to encompass what he felt for her. "You know that I do." he murmured. "You _have_ to feel it."

She reached up and cupped his face, thumb stroking lightly over his cheekbone. She was both crying and smiling. "Cody..."

He leaned in, haltingly, hesitantly, and waited for her to meet him halfway. Her eyes drifted closed and she did the same.

When their lips touched, it was like their first kiss all over again, scared, hesitant... electric. When they separated, they both smiled. Cody reached over and pulled her into his arms, her back resting against his chest, and they turned their attention to the ongoing party on the deck. "Did you want to dance?" Cody offered after a moment.

Bailey snuggled further into his hold. "No." she said quietly. "I'm good here."

Cody dropped a kiss on top of her hair. "Me too." Idly, he toyed with the _Be mine _heart, holding it up. "Have anything else to say to me?" he murmured.

Bailey giggled slightly as his breath tickled her ear. She pulled the box of hearts out of her sweatshirt pocket and poured a few into her palm, examining them carefully. "Hmm... just this, I think." She picked one out of the pile and dropped it into his hand.

_Love you._

He smiled. "That's all I wanted to know."

* * *

A/N: Geez! Bailey and Cody keep getting harder and harder to write, because they've been coming across less and less as two hurt and confused people who love and miss each other and more and more as two bitter, unbalanced crazy people who literally want to rip each other to shreds with their teeth. I don't know if you noticed, but the ending of this story isn't actually that happy.

I tried.

Go ahead, tell me what you _really_ think. I can take it.


End file.
